Ultimate Showdown: MarvelDC
by martintc
Summary: Just a crossover battle between DC's Big 7 and assorted Marvel Superheroes. It's my first fanfic, but I think it came out alright.


DISCAIMER:

This story is for nonprofit purposes only. I do not own Marvel or DC comics. Duh. I mean, really, if I owned Marvel or DC, I wouldn't be here writing fanfiction, would I? I would be sitting on a beach somewhere enjoying the money from the movie deals. Now that I have protected myself from any lawsuits, I'll give a brief into. If anyone isn't interested in this and just wants to skip ahead to the part where Superman punches the Hulk in the face, please feel free to skip ahead. Anyone still here? Good. I have a confession to make: I am not a comic book reader. I realize this may shock you, and I apologize if you feel betrayed. I just never got into them. I watched a few of the movies. I've seen the Dark knight saga, watched the Avengers and all the movies leading up to it, seen the fight scenes from Green Lantern and Man of Steel (and frankly, those are the important parts, right?) I've played Arkham Asylum, talked to people who do ready comics, watched some of the animated cartoons, and I've read extensively about all of them on Wikipedia. But I am not a comic book fan, and I imagine that it shows in the following fanfic. For one thing, it is important to remember that these are not the characters from any one comic strip, movie, game, or other form of media. They are rather the combined image I have when I think of the character. Thus, Batman has gadgets from both the Dark Knight trilogy and the Arkham series. (But no bat shark repellent. Because bat shark repellent is silly.) I tried to write things that fans will recognize without being too obvious. An observant reader will recognize some of the catch phrases people say and some of the moves characters attempt from various media. I did this to try and add some element of character to it. I don't pretend this is a great story. There really is no story at all: both sides encounter each other on a beach, and they just automatically know that they are going to fight it out. But by telling what people are thinking and making them fight in character, it is my goal to avoid something like "A fights B for an indeterminate amount of time until B passes out" where A and B could be anybody. I want character. Speaking of which, I should probably introduce the players. On the DC side we have the Justice League BIG 7: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter. Marvel is a bit more diverse. I picked the ones I was most familiar with and the ones I liked best. They have the six main players from the first Avengers movie: Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye; plus the Fantastic Four; plus Spiderman, since he's Marvel's golden boy; plus Wolverine, since I thought the X men ought to be represented and he's the only one I give a crap about. Now, for some of the rules that guided my writing. First of all, this is not a fight forum. I realize that each hero has been written by many different authors, not counting spin off movies, games, etc. Each has had their own ideas. I try to make each character follow the common trends and act in character. I don't want to hear anyone saying "Well, if they actually fought X would just use his Y power that this one guy wrote him having once and own everyone." If it is not part of their usual fighting repertoire, they don't just break it out of nowhere in this fight either. Yes, given Flash's stated speed he should be able to just blitz everyone and win, but THAT'S NOT WHAT HE DOES! For someone who has his speed, he should be untouchable. Yet he seems to get smacked around a lot more than he should, and this is reflected in the story. Yes, Superman's strength has ranged from slightly stronger than a train to able to carry whole solar systems depending on the writer, but for the purposes of this fic his strength is roughly mountain mover level. Hulk is approximately equal. Thor, Wonder Woman, and Martian Manhunter are a hairsbreadth lower, and everyone else is what you'd expect. The point is, even though he could, the Flash doesn't go charging into battle infinite mass punching everything in sight at the beginning, Aquaman usually doesn't give his opponent seizures, and a lot of other stuff that I'm sure people could say they should have done would actually be horribly out of character. This is only meant to be an accurate representation of what could happen. I think everyone can agree that if these heroes came together and threw it down, it might happen this way. It could happen a million other ways. There is unpredictability in combat. That is why strategy and role playing games have die rolls: to reflect his unpredictability. There, now that that is out of the way… The fight happens on a beach. They haven't met the other side before and know nothing about them. I tried to write it so that every character got at least one moment of awesome. I didn't want someone to start reading, thinking "Oh, cool, Batman's my favorite, I can't wait to see him kick some butts" only to read in the first paragraph "Batman was about to do something awesome, and then the Hulk punched him and he died" and have no Batman for the rest of the story. Whoever your favorite character is, they should have at least one cool moment. I don't think this is unreasonable. Each person brings something to the table. Superman is ridiculously strong. Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter are almost as strong, and Wonder Woman has more diversity with equipment while the Martian has a swiss army knife of secondary powers. Aquaman can survive the depths of the ocean and regularly beats up Cthulhu, so he shouldn't be underestimated. Batman has built up a reputation as being prepared for absolutely everything. Indeed, on forums "batman with prep" has become code for insta batwin. The Flash's speed might be a game breaker. And the Green Lantern can make absolutely anything he needs with his mind, with almost no limit. On the Marvel side, the Hulk's ability to get stronger as he gets angrier means his strength is virtually limitless. Thor is a god, with all the power and endurance that entails. Iron Man has some serious firepower, and Tony's a genius. (Incidentally, I tried to have Stark, Batman, and Reeds all show in some way their genius intellect in addition to their fighting prowess.) Captain America appears to be a lightweight, but having an indestructible shield that absorbs all vibration means he can tank shots from the strongest of them and come out unscathed, might be useful. Black Widow and Hawkeye are like Batman: they are unpowered human beings who nevertheless have an excellent track record of going against superbeings and coming out on top. Unlike Batman, they aren't scared to use lethal force. The Fantastic Four have fought things way stronger than they are before and come out on top. Spiderman is Marvel's poster boy for a reason. And Wolverine just kinda oozes badassery from every pore in his body. There, now, a little about me, in case anyone cares. I am an aspiring writer. I hope to publish novels eventually. Personally, I think I have already written stories much better than this. However, the idea for this story came to me a couple weeks ago and I felt like putting it to paper for fun. Plus, it gave me practice writing plain old fight scenes. If it is well received, I may write a couple followups with the heroes fighting the other group's villains in a more story based encounter. Well, I don't want to make this introduction longer than the story itself. I promised you superheroes beating the crap out of each other, after all. Enjoy, and feel free to leave a friendly comment.

BEGIN SIMULATION

"I see them."

Thor spoke first, pointing down the beach with his hammer. There in the distance stood seven beings, their bodies radiating raw power.

"Call it, Captain," Tony said, never taking his eyes off of them.

"Until we know what they're capable of we need to watch ourselves," Steve Rodgers said. "Hulk, you have to keep them off balance, don't let them put up a united front. Thor, try and take out their heavy hitters early. Stark, I need you in the air, keep any of their fliers from getting the drop on us. We'll stay back and try to pick off the strays and provide openings for the others. Remember, there are more of us than there are of them. As long we keep them scattered, we can win this." He hefted his shield and looked over his team. Earth's mightiest heroes. "Let's do this."

"I've got the big guy," Superman declared, eyeing the hulking green creature conspicuously standing in the middle of the crowd below.

"They have us outnumbered," Aquaman pointed out, twirling his weapon.

"Not for long," the Flash said cheerfully. "Bet I could take out half of them before you all finish making plans."

"Hal," Batman said, "Can you provide crowd control, keep some of them out of the fight so we don't get rushed?"

"I'll do my best, Batman," the Green Lantern replied.

"Hera protect us," Wonder Woman whispered, mentally preparing herself for the battle ahead. And then many things happened at once.

0:00

"HULK SMASH!" roared the Hulk, slamming down both fists into the sand. The shockwave sent sand raining down on the assembled heroes and nearly staggered Hawkeye, who was standing closest to him. The bulk of its force, however, was directed towards the assembled Justice League members. Just before it hit, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern launched themselves into the air. Superman leapt over the geysers of sand, leaving them to plow into Aquaman, Batman, and J'onn. Flash was long gone. Of the three who were hit, Batman and Aquaman were knocked flat while the Martian Manhunter weathered the blast unaffected. Hawkeye shook his head, knocking the sand out of his hair. If the first couple seconds were anything to go by, these guys were going to be no pushovers. He notched one of his HE arrows, hoping its power would be enough to bring them down. Beside him Iron Man took flight, per Captain's orders. Hawkeye hoped Tony had made some upgrades. The suit was tough and no one could fly it like Stark could, but against two fliers he would need all the help he could get. An instant later he focused his attention on the figure rocketing towards them. All the other targets were still standing a distance back, but the red-costumed Flash was nearly on top of them already.

"Heads up, Nat," Barton warned, tracking him with his bow. This guy was fast, but Barton was trained to track multiple moving targets on different vectors accurately and simultaneously. "I got him," he muttered as he lined up the shot and released the arrow.

_This is too easy_ thought Barry Allen. The arrow appeared to be coming towards him no faster than a Little League softball pitch. When it was an inch from his chest he lazily snatched it from the air and held it up for Hawkeye to see. To his surprise, Hawkeye appeared unconcerned, already notching another arrow. He had to know he couldn't hit him, so what was he doing? Then he noticed the blinking light on the end of the arrow in his hand. _Uh oh_ he thought and threw the arrow away as fast as he could. The explosion was still enough to daze him for a moment. Hawkeye's next arrow grazed his bicep. "Ok, that's not fair. No more playing around." Hawkeye grabbed a handful of arrows and fired them in rapid succession. Not one hit. Flash sped through the barrage, slapping the arrows aside in midair. He'd almost reached Hawkeye when Natasha opened fire from his right. "Whoa, there! Hold on a second, beautiful, I'll be right with you." He slid under the bullets and knocked out Barton's legs, sending the archer crashing to the ground.

"Barton!" yelled Natasha Romanoff. "Hold on." She drew a metal disk off of her belt. _I don't think so_ thought the Flash. He had no idea what the device would do, but he could guess that it wouldn't be fun for him. He shot towards the Black Widow and aimed a punch at her face. To his surprise, she blocked the blow with little effort and twisted into a kick aimed at his gut. Only Batman had ever displayed hand to hand skills and a reaction time able to counter his attacks. Barry easily sidestepped her kick and lunched a volley of rapid fire fisticuffs at her head, shoulders, chest, and belly. Natasha defended herself as well as she could, but against the fastest man alive she couldn't hope keep up. After only a couple seconds he fell forward, catching herself with her hands and gritting her teeth in pain as the Flash stood over her triumphantly. There was only one thing left for her to try. She triggered the disk still held loosely in her hand, hoping the Flash would stay still long enough for it to work on him. Her motion did not escape him, however, and he deftly snatched it from her palm and tossed it away. A second later a plume of sand erupted from the spot where it had landed.

"Nice try," Barry told her, before speeding away, leaving her collapsed in the sand. _Now who's next_?

Wolverine, Spiderman, and Captain America were charging. Flash had gone ahead and run straight into the midst of a dozen enemies alone. There was an armored man soaring through the air. None of that mattered to Superman right now. He was focused on the enormous green creature that had just bowled over Batman and Aquaman merely by hitting the ground. He turned his leap into a power dive that sent him rocketing just a few feet off the ground towards the beast. His movement did not go unnoticed. Thor tracked the Man of Steel with keen eyes as he zeroed in on the Hulk. But he would not reach his target, Thor vowed to himself. With a roar he hurled the lightning-charged Mjolnir at Superman. It was too late to stop it. One second Superman was plunging towards the Hulk. The next second he tumbling backwards through the air, propelled by a supersonic hammer strike, lightning crackling through his body. Superman tried to control his flight, tried to change direction and return to the fight, but the hammer dragged him further and further away. He could only watch helplessly as the beach disappeared into the distance.

Sue Storm stood still, overwhelmed by the chaos that surrounded her. Beside her the rest of her team looked similarly stunned. The Fantastic Four had been in some intense brawls before, but nothing compared to the sheer power that was being casually tossed around them now. Johnny was the first to recover, lobbing a fireball at the greenish man who had soared above the others to avoid Hulk's shockwave. The Green Lantern deflected it with an energy shield. Sue saw him wind up to take another shot when a red blur obscured her vision for a second and a gust of wind made her turn her head. When she looked again the Human Torch was lying motionless in the sand.

"Johnny!" she screamed, rushing to his side. She knelt down next to him and shook his shoulder, but he didn't respond. Ben was by her side a moment later.

"He seems to be alright," he said. "Looks like he just got smashed up a bit." Sue glanced back towards the Green Lantern.

"What did he do to him?"

"I don't think that guy did anything," Ben said grimly. "I think he did," pointing over her shoulder. Sue suddenly realized that Reed hadn't come over with them to check on Johnny. She looked where Ben was pointing and saw him boxing the Flash. The red speedster was ducking in and out, striking with his super speed, but he was having a hard time adapting to Reed's flexible form. All of his punches were absorbed without doing any real damage. Worse, the elasticity meant that whenever Flash hit Reed, Reed snapped back with an equally fast blow. The faster Flash hit, the faster Reed's punches came. Sue felt a rare moment of anger, tinged with maternal protectiveness. So this guy thought he could beat up her kid brother and her husband? She prepared to throw up a force field, and keep throwing them up until this creep had nowhere left to run. Before she could do anything, however, Ben tapped her on the shoulder. "Reed can handle himself. I think we've got other problems to worry about." Unaffected by the small earthquake that had staggered his fellow heroes, the Martian Manhunter was striding towards them. Sue raised a force field around them as the Thing cracked his knuckles. "It's clobbering time!"

Batman dragged himself to his feet. He felt like he'd been standing at ground zero of a bombing, but pain was hardly a new experience for him. With a practiced eye he surveyed the tactical situation. Hal Jordan had shielded himself from a flame attack and was now throwing constructs in the way of Wolverine and Spiderman, keeping them out of the fight. That was good. Flash was zooming around between opponents, causing general confusion. That was good. He'd just seen Clark fly straight into a hammer blow from the Norse god and go tumbling out of sight. That was bad. Very bad. Thor had dropped to one knee and extended his hand, recalling his hammer to him so he could rejoin the fight. Worse, with Clark gone there was no one to hold off the green brute that had knocked him over to begin with. However, years of combat with Bane, Croc, and Grundy had taught Batman how to deal with larger and stronger opponents. You had to go for the eyes, blind them while they were charging, then find a good position and do some damage while they recovered. Hulk grunted and dashed towards the Justice League members, closing the distance at an alarming rate. Batman steadied himself and drew a batarang. Before he could throw it something struck him in the stomach, denting his armor and leaving him doubled over and breathless. He watched as the object soared back to its thrower. Captain America caught his shield and slung it back on his arm. He strode towards Batman, shield in one hand, Colt M1911 sidearm in the other. "Stay down," he ordered.

"Not likely," Bruce replied, standing up.

Tony hovered above the battle. Across from him a dominatrix and a man wearing a Halloween costume did the same. Tony knew better than to scoff. He'd had enough experience with meta-humans to know that the ones with the most absurd costumes were often the most powerful. He targeted the woman, who was closer, and made a wide pass, firing both palm repulsors. The woman crossed her forearms and the high-powered particle beams dissipated against her bracelets. She sprang at Iron Man and came down on him with a vicious hammer fist that sent him plummeting to the ground. The impact left him at the bottom of a thirty foot crater in the beach. _Well that worked_ he thought dryly. He wasn't out of the fight. Not by a long shot. But it would take time for his suit's repair systems to take effect. He only hoped the rest of the team could hold out until he could get back in the fight. And the first thing to do would be light Wonder Woman's hair on fire.

0:20

Hal Jordan was impressed. He'd initially just tried to isolate his opponents with a simple wall, cutting them off from the rest of the fight for a while until someone was free to deal with them. Not to be deterred, the red and blue guy began running right up the side of the wall no matter how much height he added to it, while the other one produced claws out of his knuckles and appeared to be trying to slash his way through the Lantern constructs. Even more impressive, it actually seemed to be working. Then Hal had tried to topple the wall on the two of them. Spiderman had leapt off and swung to safety, displaying his incredible agility. Wolverine had taken full blast of it and just smashed right through. Then Hal had created a number of warrior constructs to distract them. Spiderman's webs and Wolverine's claws had made short work of them. It was time to try something they couldn't just smash through or climb over. Focusing all his will, Hal generated the enormous green energy man that the Justice League used for training exercises. It raised its fist and tried to smash them both. Wolverine took the blow, his adamantium skeleton undamaged and his flesh instantly regenerated when the giant lifted its hand. Spiderman leapt out of the way, then grabbed the fist with a web as it lifted and allowed it to carry him higher up the construct, where he began swinging from its limbs dodging its efforts to snatch him. While the construct hadn't managed to eliminate the two heroes, it would keep them occupied indefinitely. Satisfied, Hal turned to survey the rest of the battlefield. With Superman currently out of commission there was no one to stop the charging Hulk. At the Green Lantern's will a massive fist appeared above the Hulk. It slammed down twice, smashing the Hulk into the sand. Before he could rise Hal generated a green cage of solid will over the fallen monster. "That should hold you." Hulk got to his feet within his prison. His existing anger increased tenfold when he found himself caged like an animal. Rage added to rage until his desire to smash his captor consumed all other thought. With a savage roar, Hulk threw himself at barrier that separated him from the Green Lantern. The will construct shattered before the Hulk's wrath. Hulk arced through the air and brought both fists down on the stunned Green Lantern, bringing him down. Hal Jordan collapsed at the feet of the enraged Hulk, too broken from that one blow to move. All he could do was look up as the Hulk raised its fist for the final blow. As he waited, breathing painfully, a rare emotion gripped him: fear.

Thor felt a moment of joy as Mjolnir landed back in his outstretched hand. There was no sign of the man it had pummeled, but that was to be expected. "WHO ELSE WISHES TO TEST THE MIGHT OF THE GOD OF THUNDER?" Thor boomed across the battlefield. Naturally, no one stepped forward. At that moment Iron Man crashed gracelessly into the sand not far away. Following the path of his fall, Thor caught sight of Wonder Woman hovering above. She looked strong, like a warrior. Thor hoped she would provide a challenge. Letting out a cry, he spun his hammer by his side, building its momentum, until it pulled him towards his foe. Wonder Woman spun in midair to face him. For a moment she looked alarmed at the sight of her next challenger rising towards her. Thor swung his hammer overhead and brought it down on Wonder Woman's crossed bracelets. The blow knocked Wonder Woman back, and Thor seized his advantage. He locked Mjolnir against the bracelets and pushed, forcing Wonder Woman to the ground. She landed hard on one knee, arms still crossed over her head holding off the Asgardian weapon. Thor held it there for a moment longer, then disengaged and attempted to strike her with the backswing. She parried with her left forearm and struck with her right. Thor grunted and twisted away, receiving only a glancing blow. Recovering, he launched a two handed uppercut with the hammer, which Wonder Woman gracefully dodged, arching her body backwards like a dancer. She planted a foot on his chest and launched herself into a backflip, landing in a fighting stance. Thor threw himself back into battle. Rarely had he fought someone whose strength and fighting skill so closely matched his own. The fight was not like archaic swordfights, with slow strikes and parries, pauses between blows, and extended bladelocks. This was continuous and lethal. Both contestants flowed from attack to defense so smoothly that the duel appeared to be one fluid motion. Sparks flew as the enchanted metals collided. Time and time again Thor battered Diana's bracelets, but the mythical armor couldn't be dented or chipped. Thor had taken a punch to the jaw and a kick to the stomach. He in turn had landed a blow on Diana's ribs, leaving a long crack running the length of her armor. Thus far they had been too evenly matched for him to gain a decisive advantage with martial strength alone. It was time to bring the additional firepower he carried to this fight. Up until now he had relied only on his hammer to attack. This time, when Diana threw another punch, Thor stepped out of range and kicked her in the belly. Rather than press the attack as he had before he used the time to summon lightning to charge his hammer. From the clear sky storm clouds gathered, sending bolts of electricity down into Mjolnir. A small cyclone formed around the hammer as its power grew, whipping up the sand into a dust cloud. When Diana recovered and stepped forward to continue their duel Thor did not dodge backwards or try to parry like before. Instead he stepped into her attack, ducking inside her stance and pressing the hammer against her chest. The lightning discharged, hurling Wonder Woman back. Thor maintained the assault, channeling all of Mjolnir's accumulated energy into the blinding bolt. Wonder Woman lay curled on the ground, unable to do anything but endure the attack. After an eternity the last of the lightning sparked out from the hammer and the skies overhead cleared again. Wonder Woman lay trembling in the center of a ring of melted, fused sand, her body gently smoking. Tiny streams of sparks continued to dance across her skin. Thor approached his fallen foe. She was out of the fight for now, but he had already been surprised by her strength and endurance. He had no doubt that, given time, she would recover enough strength to return to the battle. He had no intention of giving her that time, though. One solid hit from Mjolnir would ensure that she stayed out of this fight. He stood over Wonder Woman and raised the hammer. "Your ancestors would be proud," he told her and swung the hammer down. It never reached her. About a foot from Diana's head another weapon interposed itself and blocked the intended strike. Thor's gaze followed the outstretched arm and beheld a regal young man wearing gold scale armor.

"I cannot allow you to do that," Aquaman said.

Batman drew his batclaw and snapped off a shot at Captain America's shoulder. Cap batted the barbed grappling harpoon aside with his shield and charged. Batman threw a punch into the center of the shield, relying on his gauntlets to protect his hands in the hopes that he could knock Steve back. The shield didn't budge. Batman could almost feel the metal drain the momentum from his fist. A moment later Cap swung the shield and shoved Batman's arm aside. Raising his sidearm, he fired a three round burst into Batman's armored chest. Before he could shoot again Batman swung his body aside and gripped Cap's left wrist with his right hand. With his left hand he grabbed the barrel of the pistol and used the leverage to execute a Krav Maga disarm, wrenching the arm out and twisting the gun back in the direction of Steve's face until the grip was torn from his hand. Bruce immediately discarded the weapon and dropped back into his defensive posture. Steve swung the shield horizontally, aiming for Batman's throat. Batman dropped under the swipe, feeling the edge smack against his cowl's ears, and threw a left hook into Cap's liver. It felt like hitting a brick wall. Steve brought his knee up and caught the underside of Bruce's chin, snapping his head back. He followed it with a shield bash to the face that left Batman stunned. Even dazed, Batman instinctively reached for a cluster of batarangs on his utility belt and hurled them at Captain America, who turtled behind his shield. Batman pulled out his explosive gel dispenser and fired a stream onto the shield, hoping the blast would be enough to destroy the weapon. He turned his face away and pressed the detonator. When the smoke cleared Captain America stood unharmed, the shield none the worse for wear.

"It's called vibranium," he said, lifting it to block a punch aimed at its head. "It absorbs all vibration directed against it. Vibration is just matter in motion. Every blow is only as strong as the motion behind it. Punch or explosion, it's all the same." He demonstrated by effortlessly stopping another three strikes before going on the offensive. Batman swung his gauntlets, deflecting the shield's blows, but each strike left a sizable dent. He had to find a way to get deprive his opponent of his shield, otherwise he wouldn't last much longer. He feinted left, then dodged right and triggered the bladed fins on his forearms to launch at Captain America. The attack was predictably no more effective than any of the previous ones had been, and Cap took another swing with his shield. Batman retreated from the attack, deliberately stumbling back as if he was losing his edge. With his right hand he flicked a sonic batarang, being careful to throw it wide so it shot harmlessly past Captain America. A second later he had to go back on the defensive as Steve launched a lightning fast sequence of attacks. His bracers really were taking a pounding. If this didn't work… Then through the whirling arms Batman caught sight of an object flying back towards them. A second later the sonic batarang slammed into Captain America's back on the return flight, staggering him and distracting him with its high pitched wailing. Batman seized the advantage, stepping forward, grabbing the edges of the shield with both hands, and turning it like a ship's wheel until he had Steve's arm awkwardly held against his back. With a final yank Batman wrenched the shield off of Steve's forearm and threw it aside. Before he could draw another gadget and finish the fight Steve was upon him, delving into all his hand to hand to hand experience to thrash the Caped Crusader. Batman almost smiled. Now this was his kind of fight.

J'onn assessed his two opponents. The first appeared to have skin made of stone, which possibly extended to his organs and bones as well. J'onn suspected his durability would be matched only by his physical strength, in addition to whatever other powers he might possess. The female was clearly responsible for the force field that protected both of them. Her invisible psionic shield would have been difficult for a human to detect, but it was apparent to his enhanced Martian senses. He was unsure if he would be able to pass through it, even with his phase-shifting. It would be better to test its strength first, he thought, firing his eyebeams. Sue felt the mental strain increase as she blocked the attack, but it was nothing she couldn't handle. "Ready?" she asked Ben. The Thing nodded and rolled his shoulders. Pushing out with both arms, the Invisible Woman mentally expanded her force field towards the Martian Manhunter like a battering ram. At the same time Ben charged forward. The solid wall of psionic energy slammed into J'onn, leaving him reeling and knocking his eyebeams off target. Before he could recover Ben uppercut his jaw. He kicked sand in the Martian's face and threw a haymaker across J'onn's left cheek. Another psionic pile driver drove into the Martian Manhunter, knocking him back. The Thing dove towards his midsection, trying to tackle the off balance Martian, but J'onn turned intangible before Ben could reach him. Ben howled in pain and dropped to his knees as J'onn phase shifted through his body. Still in his incorporeal form, Martian Manhunter attempted to phase through Sue's force field, but the energy of the barrier clashed with the energy of his phase shifting. His head made it through, then his chest, but each second made the going harder. At first the field felt at insubstantial as a stiff breeze, but already it felt like he was flying through quicksand as the force field adapted to block him. When he was halfway through he could go no further. A second later he found himself skipping across the sand like a rock across a pond as he was violently ejected from the field. The shock disrupted his focus over his powers, meaning he had turned tangible again and every impact with the sand hurt until he finally skidded to a stop. Clearly, phasing through the force field was not an option. He got to his feet and stretched his arms out with his shapeshifting while simultaneously increasing their size and density until each arm could reach across a football field and was tipped with a fist the size of a jeep. He slammed both hands down on Invisible Woman's force field. The protective bubble was forced into the sand by the might of the blows, and Sue held her arms over her head, trying to bolster the shield with her reserves of psionic energy. Martian Manhunter continued to pound on the shield with his oversized arms. Sue couldn't even think about going on the offensive. It was taking everything she had to keep the field up under this beating. She felt drips of blood rolling out of her nose. Just when she thought her head would split in half from the strain the assault ended. Ben had gotten to his feet and pinned the tall alien to the ground. He tried to break the hold, but the Thing wouldn't let go. Turning insubstantial, he passed once again through the Thing's body, and again the Thing collapsed in agony. Sue smashed the Martian Manhunter aside with the strongest force field she could muster and ran to Ben's side. "Ben! Are you alright?"

Ben groaned. "I think so. Don't let him touch you."

Sue gratefully helped him up. "You saved my life back there. I don't think I could have held him off for much longer."

Ben smiled weakly. "Don't mention it," he said. "Clobbering's what I…LOOK OUT!" He roughly pushed her aside. A pair of eyebeams tore through the air and struck the Thing, who collapsed into Sue's arms. Over his shoulder she saw the Manhunter implacably approaching and steeled herself. This was going to be a long fight.

Spiderman swung from the giant's right hand to its left. The enormous construct tried to crush him between its mammoth hands, but Peter Parker was too fast, jumping clear and launching another web at the colossus's head in midair to catch his fall. Below him Wolverine was climbing the construct himself, securing himself with his claws and slashing holes in its legs to bring it down. _This isn't so hard_ thought Peter. The colossus was big but slow and not too smart. He'd been able to climb its body, avoiding its ponderous swipes long enough to attack its vulnerable spots. He was just beginning to feel comfortable when the titan vanished without warning. One second Peter had been swinging from a web affixed to the giant's jaw, the next his web was loose and there was nothing to grab onto. In the long term this was good: it meant that the construct couldn't attack anyone else and the man projecting it had been incapacitated. In the short term, the very short term, it was bad: Peter parker was now six stories up with nothing to break his fall. His mind raced as fast as his body. Then an idea occurred to him as he plummeted to the ground. Certain species of spiders had a behavior called ballooning, in which they spun their silk into a parachute to catch the wind. The spiders could then travel up to five kilometers on air currents. Right now, though, Peter wasn't interested in the statistics. All he cared about was that it might provide a means of landing without debilitating injury. Spinning his web in a crude approximation of a spider's parachute, Spiderman was able to slow his speed enough to make a respectable three point landing. "Nice landing," Wolverine sneered.

"I'm going to move up and help Thor and Stark," Peter said. "You coming?"

"Nah," Wolverine replied. "Richard Reeds and his FUBAR four look like they need some professional help. Good luck to ya, web-head."

0:40

The Flash was in an unfamiliar situation: he had to slow down. At first he had thought that his speed would give him the clear advantage against a man whose only superpower was elasticity. However, he quickly realized that fighting Mr. Fantastic was a lot like throwing a rubber ball against a wall. Throwing the ball faster didn't hurt the ball, it just made it come flying back at you that much more quickly. Normally, Reeds wouldn't be a problem, but every time Flash hit him at super speed he gained the ability to counterattack just as fast. It would have been even, except Reeds could stretch his arms to extend his reach. In response, Flash had to slow himself down considerably when attacking, just so he could dodge the inevitable retaliation with his usual speed. They continued at an impasse for some time until Barry heard a roar from somewhere behind him. He turned to see the Hulk smash Hal Jordan to the ground and move in to finish him off. _That ain't happening_ he thought to himself. He turned back to Richard Reeds and caught his next punch with super speed. He circled around his foe, moving so fast he was only a blur. When he was done Mr. Fantastic was wrapped in his own flexible arms, which were knotted around his chest. "You look a little tied up at the moment," Flash quipped. "Why don't we continue this when you're free, huh?" With that he turned and raced towards the Hulk. Hulk never saw him coming. He was just about to smash the small green man who had caged him when something punched him hard in the side of the head. A second away from crushing the Green Lantern, he turned away searching for the source of this new attack. Barry was standing right behind him. "Over here big guy." Hulk took a swing at him, but Flash circled around behind him and hit him in the back, knocking him off balance. Hulk whirled around and saw the Flash lounging in the sand next to a sandcastle, which he had apparently built while waiting for the Hulk to turn around. The Hulk's anger tripled and he threw another punch at the Flash, but Barry was gone. He was running in circles around the Hulk at top speed, throwing punches at him from all directions. Hulk roared and swung again and again, but he couldn't make his fists connect with the man who was hitting him a hundred times a second. A small cyclone began to form around the Hulk, battering him with gale force winds. All the other contestants turned to watch the spectacle in spite of themselves. Finally the Hulk reached his breaking point. His rage-filled roar chilled the spines of friend and foe alike as he threw his strongest punch yet, not at the Flash, who was moving too fast to be seen anyways, but at the ground at his feet. The beach exploded outward from the point of impact in an omnidirectional wave of sand and sound. There was no way to dodge that. The Flash was sent flying and landed heavily, his ears ringing. He sat up and held his forehead in his hands, waiting for the world to stop spinning as the Hulk charged.

_An excellent strategy, Banner_ thought Thor as he watched the Hulk disable his untouchable foe with an indirect attack. Perhaps he should do the same. So far Aquaman had proven a strong and capable opponent, able to fend off Thor's weapon handily with his own and even deflect a couple of lightning bolts. Now, inspired by the Hulk, Thor spun his hammer at his side and thrust it into the air, using it as a conductor to attract a lightning strike to himself. The ground rippled outward from the epicenter of the blast and Aquaman was propelled away from Thor by the concussive thunderclap. He disappeared into the enormous chasm left from the explosion.

Batman and Captain America's hand to hand fight began gradually, starting with cautious jabs and probing punches. Each contestant moved through the most rudimentary stances and forms, assessing how their opponent reacted, testing their defenses. The blows came slowly, but with great precision and perfect form. Then, a pause, each reviewing what they'd learned about the other. One shifted this weight, the other subtly lifted a hand. One tensed a muscle, the other turned in response. No detail was lost. After a moment the fight began again, more complicated this time. They feinted, countered, interrupted. No energy was wasted on talk. Each was at the peak human condition and benefited from years of training and experience. The fight grew more intense. Captain America blocked a snap kick to the sternum with an openhanded slap to the incoming shin. He responded with right and left body shots in succession, which Batman countered with elbow blocks, then slipped between Batman's raised forearms and hit his chest with a palm strike, knocking him back. Batman countered his next hook and caught the inside of his elbow against Cap's, locking their right arms together. He punched Cap twice in the ribs with his left hand before Cap snapped the elbow back across Batman's face. Batman retreated a step and blocked Steve's next punch with both elbows. They both stepped in and grabbed each other's forearms and pitted their strength against the other, attempting to knock their opponent off balance. After a few seconds of futile pushing Bruce, whose arms were on the inside, threw his arms apart with a burst of energy from his core and used the force they had been exerting against each other to lean in and headbutt Steve. He followed it with a roundhouse kick, which Steve ducked under. Captain America threw another jab at Batman's head, which Bruce slapped aside before pivoting on one foot and kneeing Steve in the gut. Steve doubled over and Bruce attempted to crescent kick his head, but Steve caught his ankle and brought his elbow down on Bruce's extended kneecap, knocking him to the ground. Bruce tucked both legs to his chest and fired them out like pistons, knocking Cap back long enough for him to flip back to his feet. Steve had already recovered. He grabbed Batman's right shoulder with his right hand used the leverage to vault over Bruce so he was standing behind him. Before Bruce could react he slung his arm around Bruce's neck, mashing the sides of his neck between his bicep and forearm. Bruce began to feel dizzy as the sleeper hold deprived his brain of blood. If he didn't break the hold soon, he knew the fight would be over. He grabbed the arm with both hands and executed a shoulder throw, throwing his weight forward and twisting his shoulders so Captain America was thrown clear over his right shoulder…straight at his fallen shield. Batman grabbed an explosive batarang and hurled it after Captain America as he tumbled across the sand. Steve's arm seemed to instinctively slide into his shield's strap as he rolled over it and brought it up as he crouched in the sand, barely in time to catch the incoming projectile. Captain America stood, unharmed by the blast, shield in hand once again.

1:00

Sue had one trick left to try. So far the green skinned alien had taken everything she and Ben had thrown at him and barely slowed down. But there was one trick left in her arsenal, a ruthless technique more often used as a threat than actually employed against a living being. Nevertheless, all other measures had proved insufficient. This time, when the Martian Manhunter moved back into range Sue generated another force field, not around herself or between them but inside her opponent's chest. At her signal the tiny psionic bubble began to expand. The Martian's face contorted in pain as he turned all his power towards containing the awful pressure that threatened to tear him apart. Sue almost ended the attack before she remembered Johnny, lying unconscious in the sand behind her, Reed, fighting his opponent alone because they were too busy to come to his aid, and most of all Ben, and the many times he had been struck down rescuing her. This had to end. She increased the power of her attack. J'onn attempted to shapeshift his form to expand around the growing ball of energy inside him, but even he had his limits. He desperately tried to turn intangible, but the ghostly form reacted as violently to the psionic energies as it had before. Sue shielded her eyes from the blinding flash as the Martian Manhunter exploded. When she looked again there were only green chunks of goo raining down on the sand. She sighed. It was finally over. Now maybe they could regroup and take out the rest of their opponents. She hoped they weren't all as tough as the Martian had been. The Fantastic Four had taken on plenty of opponents stronger than themselves over the years, but the fight with the Martian had been brutal none the less. The first teammate she checked on was Ben, standing nearby staring at the spot where J'onn had last stood. He'd been at the last of his strength, running only on sheer determination and heroic willpower near the end. She shot him a concerned glance, and he nodded to let her know he was alright. "It had to be done," he said.

"Yeah," she replied wearily. "Let's go help the others. We need to…" The words died in her throat. Was it her imagination, or were the globs of Martian flesh moving? A second later there was no doubt. They were coalescing in the spot where the Martian last stood. The Thing stomped one as it rolled itself past his foot. From the shapeless lump of green matter features began to emerge. A moment later the Martian Manhunter stood before them, whole and intact once again. Sue felt a cold lump form in her stomach. Her strongest attack, and it had barely kept him down for the count. She reflexively cloaked herself and Ben from sight, praying that it would be enough to hide them from this monster.

The Martian known as J'onn hurt. A lot. His species had the ability to regenerate body parts, an ability he'd honed over the years of his career as a superhero. At various points in his life he had regenerated from just a severed arm or head, recovering all his previous strength over time. The process was far from painless, however. Right now it was taking all he had to maintain his body's viscosity and keep it from collapsing back into a liquid. He suspected one good blow would be enough to shatter his concentration and return him to a distributed pile of goo. Before his eyes both opponents vanished from the visible spectrum. Invisible Woman's concealment was excellent; even his enhanced Martian senses could only pick up a trace of them. Fortunately J'onn didn't need to see his enemies to find them. He stretched out his mind, searching for their thoughts. From beneath her cloak of invisibility Sue cringed as she felt a vast alien presence touch her mind and worm its way into her thoughts. She frantically tried to recall the self-defense lessons Reed had given them against telepaths. J'onn tried to be as gentle as he could. Had he wanted to, he could have battered her mind and soul with painful, horrifying visions, sensations, and memories until her sanity broke, but to do so was an unforgivable crime among a race of telepaths. Instead he chose an attack equally potent, but far less painful. He simultaneously blurred her vision with hazy illusions, linked her mind momentarily to other combatants on the field to give her thoughts and perceptions that were not her own, and induced sleepiness to break her focus. When Sue's defenses slipped he used a fraction his mind control to deactivate her invisibility, and both she and the Thing returned to the visible spectrum. Before he could incapacitate them a long arm snaked out of nowhere and punched him in the face before withdrawing to its owner. Sue turned and saw the greatest thing she'd seen all day: Richard Reeds rejoining the fight, none the worse for wear from his bout with the Flash. "Keep him busy," her husband said. "I'm going to revive Johnny. Just hold on, Sue! We can do this!" She felt her second wind coming. If her husband could get her brother back in the fight, who could hope to stand against the four of them together? Reeds turned to help the Human Torch. In his place stepped Wolverine, leaping through the air to plunge his adamantium claws deep into the Martian Manhunter's chest. J'onn grunted and grabbed his wrist, locking eyes with the Wolverine. Logan met his gaze easily, staring fiercely into the alien's large black orbs.

"I am Mars' sole survivor," spoke the Martian softly, their faces only inches apart. "There is a reason for that."

He saw the beast strike down Hal Jordan. He saw the Flash mount a valiant attack, only to the thrown aside for his trouble. He saw J'onn fighting two opponents at once, Diana falling to a brutal barrage of lightning, the king of Atlantis plummeting into an abyss, Bruce fighting with his armor nearly falling off. He saw all this, despite the limitations of distance and obstructions to sight, and forced himself to rise. The blow that struck him had carried him miles away from the battle. It had left him drained and weary, his strength broken by the single strike. But that didn't matter now. They needed him. He pushed himself laboriously into the air. A second later he broke the sound barrier as he sailed through the sky, returning to the beach. _Hold on my friends_ the one named Kal-El thought. _I am coming._ The beachhead sped towards him. There were many things he could do, but his priority was the Flash. Barry was still sitting on his hands and knees, waiting for the world to stop spinning after being smashed by the Hulk. Superman knew he would recover, given time. However, the way the Hulk was racing towards him with his fist raised didn't indicate that he was willing to let Barry catch his breath. Superman angled his approach to cut off the Hulk. Time for round two. As the Hulk raised both hands over his head to slam the Flash Superman tackled him around the chest, wrapping his arms as far as they would go around the Hulk's muscular torso and carrying him off into the sky. The Hulk's roar mingled in his ears with the howl of the wind rushing by them. Hulk slammed his fists into Superman's back again and again. Superman grimly tried to hold on, but every blow was stronger than the last. With one final effort the Hulk ripped him off and tumbled freely through the air. Superman recovered and shot towards him at superspeed to punch him mightily in midair. The Hulk tumbled into the distance and Superman put on another burst of speed to close the gap and hit him again. As he did so the Hulk caught him around the neck and hurled him at the ground as hard as he could. Superman crashed into a forest hard enough to topple the surrounding trees. A second later the Hulk fell bellowing from the sky and landed on him with both fists and all the weight of his fall. Superman was driven several feet into the ground. The Hulk snorted and grabbed his enemy by the cape, lifting him out of the hole and sizing him up. NO ONE WOULD LEAVE HULK ALONE! FIRST THE GREEN MAN HAD TRIED TO STOP HULK, AND HULK SMASHED HIM. THEN THE RED MAN HAD TRIED TO STOP HULK, AND HULK SMASHED HIM TOO. NOW HULK WOULD SMASH THIS PUNY MAN! He lifted Superman over his head and swung him like a rag doll, smashing him against the ground repeatedly. He then hurled Superman through a tree with a roar. Clark slowly got to his feet. His opponent was strong. Time to see how strong. He flew towards the Hulk, moving so fast he almost seemed to teleport, and jabbed at the brute. The Hulk countered with a punch of his own and the concussive ripple from where the two blows collided leveled the forest around them for miles. Both adversaries were sent sliding back. Superman dug his hand into the ground to stop his backwards motion. He now had an accurate gage of the Hulk's strength. He knew how hard he could hit him, and how hard he would have to hit him. As they closed with each other again Superman threw another punch. The Hulk countered with his own punch, and this time he held his ground and Superman was dropped flat on his back. That blow had been twice as strong as the previous one. The Hulk lifted his foot and brought it down on the Man of Steel's chest. Superman grunted as his enemy ground his heel and impacted him into the earth below. He grabbed the foot and pushed with both hands, trying to force it off of him. The Hulk snarled and pushed down harder. Slowly, his arms shaking with the effort, Superman pressed the monster's foot up high enough for him to activate his flight and shoot out from under it. The Hulk's defiant roar made him pause and evaluate the situation. The monster was getting angrier. As his anger grew, so did his power. The longer this fight went on, the stronger the Hulk would get. If he couldn't find a way to win soon, even his strength wouldn't be enough to end the monster's rampage.

Thor gazed down into the fissure left by his lightning strike. At first there was no sign of his opponent. However, a moment later his keen eyes caught a movement in the depths, like a body stirring itself from sleep. He raised his arm and hammer and watched the skies grow dark once more as he prepared to strike again. Before he could finish something wrapped around his chest and left arm from behind. He was yanked off balance and Mjolnir clattered to the ground. Turning, he saw Wonder Woman holding the other end of her lasso, which was constricting his torso. Diana still looked shaky from before, but her eyes were steady and determined. Thor twisted around and grabbed the taut rope that ensnared him with his free right hand. He pulled, and Diana stumbled forward for a moment. Then she dug her feet in and pulled back with all her might. Thor was roughly yanked to the ground, struggling against the empowered weapon. Diana held the lasso with both hands and grimly reeled him in. When the struggling Asgardian landed at her feet Wonder Woman dropped the golden lasso and began pounding on his face with both fists. He tried to strike back with his free arm and push her away, but she ignored his efforts and continued hitting him. She straddled his chest and punched him with both hands alternately until her arms ached from the effort. The beating was beginning to do damage. Thor's struggles slowly ceased. With the last of her strength Wonder Woman threw her arms apart and swung them back together, slamming her indestructible bracelets against each other inches from Thor's face. The concussive force made blood drip from Thor's ears. As its echo faded the god of thunder's eyes rolled back into his head and he moved no more. Diana sighed and rolled off his unconscious figure, taking a moment on the ground to get her strength back before she attempted to rise. The world suddenly spun around her and she toppled sideways, too dizzy and too weary to move. She could only lay there. A hand entered her field of vision. Without a thought she took it and allowed it to haul her to her feet. When she was able to focus again she found herself face to face with Aquaman. "It seems I owe you a great debt for your rescue earlier. If you hadn't stopped him I'm sure he would have broken me." Aquaman smiled gently. "He was about to assault me again before you snared him. Let us declare all debts between us paid." Diana nodded; it was fair. "You should go check on Barry and Hal, they ran afoul of that green brute earlier and I worry for them." Aquaman nodded and placed a hand on her shoulder before turning to go. Wonder Woman took a deep breath and prepared to follow him when something sticky attached itself to her ankles and snatched her bodily off her feet. She fell to the ground with a groan and rolled over to see what new madness she'd fallen into. Behind her, webs still trailing from both hands, stood Spiderman.

"Armor at 65% capacity," reported the automated voice in Iron Man's helmet. "Give me a rundown," Tony said. "Power levels are at 63% and rising. You have adequate power to engage in prolonged combat. 85% of weapon systems are intact, however repulsor systems have sustained significant damage. Be advised, flight will put additional strain on all damaged systems and is not advisable. Armor integrity is intact and should provide sufficient protection against moderate physical trauma. Servos were overloaded in the impact; your lifting capacity is at 50% of its maximum weight. In addition, my bio scanners report that you have a slipped disk in your back." "Yeah, I noticed that one myself," Tony muttered dryly. He'd been out of the fight for too long already; 65% capacity was going to have to be enough. With a groan he climbed back to his feet. He saw Spiderman charge past, aiming for the woman who had knocked him out of the sky. "Watch yourself, kid. She packs a mean punch." To his suit computer, he said "Divert power to RT and optimize the targeting optics." His red combat heads-up display flickered to life. "Let's see if we can't give you some help, Peter," he muttered to himself as he locked on to Wonder Woman.

Captain America threw his shield. Batman batted it aside with his gauntlet and fired a batclaw at his opponent. Steve easily rolled out of the way, scooping up his shield and holding it in front of his chest in a defensive crouch. Bruce had given up on disarming Captain America again. That would only work once. He'd just have to work around that shield. With a running start he launched himself into the air, reaching into his utility belt as he did so. At the apex of his leap he opened his cape and dropped into a glide kick aimed at Captain America. Unsurprisingly, Captain America hunkered behind his raised shield, preparing to swat him aside as he came down. Batman's perception slowed to a crawl. The timing had to be perfect. As his boot struck the center of Captain America's shield he bent his knee to absorb the impact. In the briefest instant when his motion stopped and he hung there, one bent leg pushed against Cap's shield, he released the tiny spiked minimine in his hand, which fell to the ground at Captain America's feet. The next moment Steve heaved his shield at a forty five degree angle and sent him flying. Bruce fired his bent leg at the same time, using the shield as a springboard to send himself flying even further. He landed and rolled back to watch. The tiny black ball exploded with enough force to flip a police cruiser. The blast blew half of Steve Roger's mask off and sent him spinning end over end twenty feet in the air. He landed in a heap. Batman didn't stick around to celebrate his victory. He looked over the combat zone, taking everything in at a glance. Of the seven who began the fight, only the Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman were still on their feet, in addition to himself. Aquaman was checking on the others and in no immediate danger himself. J'onn was in serious trouble. He'd easily held his own two against one, but their enemies were massing against him. Batman was sure he would be overwhelmed in seconds, and there was ultimately nothing he could do to stop it. He might buy the Martian a few more seconds if he attacked, but given the circumstances he would be overcome by that many opponents before J'onn could recover enough strength to make a difference. It was a sobering realization, but not one he agonized over once it was made. What would be would be. He turned his attention to Diana. The Amazon was holding on, but he could see she was at her limit. She had one opponent attacking her at close range while the armored man took aim at her from afar. In her condition, the combined attack might be enough to give her trouble. If he could take down the enemy providing long range support, Diana might be able to overcome her lone adversary. Then they could make a stand together against their foes. He began to rush Iron Man. He was clearly a tech-based hero, and if there was one thing Bruce Wane knew, it was technology.

1:20

Truthfully, Peter Parker was terrified as he stepped up to confront Wonder Woman. This girl had taken down Stark and Thor, so what chance did he think he had? But you didn't get to wear the tights by being a coward, so Peter put on his best, bravest, most confident Spiderman face as he approached. "Alright lady, I don't want to do this. I'm going to give you one chance to surrender or…"

"No Amazon would submit to a man," Wonder Woman shot back. "However, we do understand the value of mercy. Lay down your arms and your mask, and I give my word you shall not be harmed." Peter swallowed nervously. His opponent certainly didn't suffer from a lack of confidence in her abilities. His spider sense was starting to tingle, and he had a suspicion about what it was. "Alright, if that's how it's going to be…" he said, raising his hands for battle as his spider sense went haywire. He launched himself into the air and executed a backflip, hoping his suspicions were correct. Beneath him an antitank missile shot through the space he had previously occupied and hit Wonder Woman in the face. Peter landed lightly on his feet and turned in the direction the shot had come. As he'd guessed: Iron Man. Shielding the incoming missile from their enemy's sight using Peter's body was a clever idea, but he sure hoped Stark knew about and anticipated the extent of his extrasensory abilities before he fired a missile directly at his back. He probably had, the man was a genius. He turned his attention back to Wonder Woman. She was struggling to get back to her feet. He fired a strand of webbing from his left wrist, catching her around the waist and yanking her closer. As she fell towards him he punched her in the stomach with his free hand, dropping her to the ground winded. Even knocked down she expertly swung her leg and swept him off his feet before rolling over and raising herself on her left elbow to punch him in the face. Spiderman recoiled as he saw the knuckles speedily approaching his face, seemingly in slow motion and in acute detail on account of his senses and reaction time. _This is going to leave some scars_ he thought bleakly. The blow never landed. An inch from his nose the arm was blasted aside by a blinding stream of sparks that left Spiderman blinking for a few seconds, waiting for the purple blotches to disappear from his vision. "Yow!" he yelled in surprise. When he could see again he got to his feet. Tony had fired his unibeam inches above Peter's face to blast Wonder Woman. He looked pissed; Wonder Woman must have scratched his precious armor. Peter was just glad Iron Man's targeting systems hadn't been affected. A couple inches lower and Tony would have scorched his mask off. Not to mention his face. Wonder Woman was looking rather…disheveled, but she wasn't out of the fight yet. Spiderman fired a glob of webbing at her eyes, which she blocked with her crossed armguards. The adhesive glued her steel-clad forearms together where it landed for a second before she forced them apart with an effort. He continued to fire silk at her, ensnaring her in a fine net of webbing that restricted her movements. She continued to advance on him, stretching the silk with each labored step. With a final explosive grunt she tore her way out of the cocoon, leaving strands of broken web stuck all over her body. She reflexively looked down at herself and shook her arms, trying to shake it off like someone doused in water unexpectedly. Peter took advantage of her momentary discomposure to shoot a thread of silk from each hand, adhering to her shoulders. He then jumped into the air and pulled with both hands, slinging himself towards her feet first. Peter saw her look up in surprise before he slammed into her face with a two-footed kick. Wonder Woman crashed to the ground and Spiderman landed on top of her and punched her twice in the face. As he wound up for another strike Wonder Woman reached up, caught his incoming fist, and flipped him over her head. She got to her feet indignantly. _What would it take to keep her down? _Peter wondered. Then Diana lurched forward as Tony fired a cluster of eight mini missiles from a wrist armature into her back. Spiderman lunged forward and uppercut her ten feet into the air.

Bruce Wayne put on an extra burst of speed. Diana was taking a pounding over there. Even Batman was unsure how much more she could take. He had just the thing to stop Iron Man. The only problem was going to be getting close enough to use it. He was so focused on stopping Iron Man from harming his teammate that he almost missed the movement in the corner of his eye. Some projectile was fast approaching him. It was too late to stop, but he managed to shift his weight and slide in the sand so that it only tore a gap in the armor over his side, rather than impaling him through the chest. Hawkeye notched another arrow and sent it on the fly. Batman batted it aside with his gauntlet and it exploded behind him. Black Widow stepped up beside him to fire her widow's bite bracelets at him. Batman leapt and rolled, evading the electrostatic blasts. The pair of agents kept their distance, trying to keep him off balance with sheer volume of firepower. Smart. There was nowhere here that he could take cover or gain elevation on them. Fortunately Batman did not require benevolent architecture to elude his opponents. He tracked their movements mid-leap. Hawkeye was aiming at where he would land, timing his shot. The moment Batman felt his feet touch the ground he released all the smoke pellets he had, some at his feet, others flicked at his opponents or behind him. At the same time Hawkeye released his arrow, which disappeared into the expanding cloud of smoke. There was a thud and an agonized grunt. Natasha Romanoff fired a spread of electric charges at the sound. A tense moment of silence followed. The smoke was already spreading around Black Widow and Hawkeye, cutting them off from the rest of the battlefield. The cloud was densest around the place Batman had stood, where sheets of smoke obscured all vision. They knew better than to try and advance into it blind. Instead they both stood, weapons drawn, straining their ears for any sign of their opponent. In a blur of motion, Batman emerged unharmed from the cloud, gliding silently over their heads on his spread cape, wraithlike in the thick smoke. Both tried to adjust their aim and nail him in mid-flight, but he folded his cape and dropped to the ground, dodging their aim and kicking Black Widow in the stomach. He rolled on landing and charged Hawkeye, who drew and released an arrow at point blank range. Batman caught it on his gauntlet, but the arrowhead split into a bola which wrapped itself around his wrist. The weighted weapon pulled on his arm and threw off his balance for a moment, allowing Barton to swing his bow like a baseball bat into the side of Batman's skull. Batman rolled away from the blow and dove back into the smoke, vanishing from sight again. A second later Barton heard the bola cord snap. He ran to Natasha's side and helped her up. "Are you alright?" She lifted a finger to her lips and Barton got the hint. In the smoke's darkness the slightest sound could give them away. He shifted his stance so he and Natasha stood back to back and notched an arrow, scanning the smoke for movement. Inside the smoke Batman shook the last remnants of the bolas from his wrist and activated his cowl's detective mode, highlighting his opponents' outlines through the smoke. The smoke helped to even the odds. He slipped a rebreather into his mouth so he wouldn't cough and give away his position. The next step would be to disable their weapons. He grabbed a pinch of explosive powder a pocket of his utility belt and threw it at Black Widow and Hawkeye. The powder exploded around them like firecrackers with a loud crackle and strobes of light, blinding in the dark cloud that surrounded them. Alone, the powder would do nothing. However, the noise and light served to mask whatever noise he made as the rushed towards Hawkeye. His first punch shattered Barton's bow and continued to his sternum. He followed it with a kick to the head and raised his fists for a double handed overhead strike. Before he could land the blow Black Widow slid towards him on one knee and lifted her leg for an impossibly high kick to his jaw. She sprang to her feet and bounded nimbly behind him. Batman felt a garrote drop down around his neck and yank him backwards away from Hawkeye. He reverse headbutted her to gain room so he could twist around to face her. He caught a handful of her flowing hair with his right hand, stabbed a batarang into her bicep with his left, and used the leverage to throw her over his shoulder at Hawkeye. Hawkeye caught her with his left arm and brandished a dagger clenched in his right hand. Batman parried the first three strikes with the batarang before Natasha kicked it from his hand and Barton cut him on the arm. Batman rolled backwards into the thinning smoke. It was obvious the two cared about each other. They each became more aggressive when the other was in danger, and their body language indicated protectiveness that went beyond mere camaraderie. He could use that. As the last of the smoke dissipated he charged. Natasha came in high with a punch. At the same time Barton went for a low slash to the calf. Batman split the attack, grabbing Natasha's arm and using it to swing his legs over Barton. As they both turned to face him he hook kicked at Natasha, aiming at her stomach. She whirled away from the attack, graceful as a dancer. Barton stepped up to fill the gap. When Batman suddenly redirected his attack at him Barton instinctively stepped back to absorb the impact. Batman had hoped that he would collide with Black Widow, but they were too well adjusted to each other's fighting styles. Natasha had already stepped clear and landed a two footed kick on his chest, landed on her upper back, and flipped back to her feet. This gave Barton the room to dive in and slash Batman across the calf. Batman slapped his head down with both hands, intercepting his fall with a knee to the chest. Black Widow tried to circle around and attack, but Batman kept Barton between them. He punched him and spun, driving his opposite elbow into the same spot. Barton stumbled and Batman kicked the inside of his knee. Barton's arms flew out as he fell and Batman caught one and cranked it back as hard as he could. Still holding the arm he elbowed Barton in the back, tossing him forward onto his back and delivering a punch across his face, knocking him out cold. Black Widow dove at him, throwing her legs around his neck and attempting to use the leverage to hurl him to the ground by throwing her weight backwards. Batman expertly tucked in his chin and grabbed the inside of her thighs. Rather than try to fight gravity he moved with it so that rather than slamming into the ground he rolled to absorb the impact while using the grip on Natasha's legs to turn her momentum against her. She hit the ground hard and Batman landed on top of her. His hand brushed her neck, and she felt a brief prickle before he withdrew. She put her hand to her neck, puzzled, and her fingers fluttered against something small and pointy. She brought it in front of her face to look, but her eyes seemed to take forever to focus. Finally she saw what it was: a bat shaped toxic dart. Already she could feel a terrible numbness spreading from her neck and settling in her chest. Her arm dropped limply to her side. Natasha tried to fight the panic welling inside her, knowing it was just her body's natural response trying to fight off the poison. She couldn't help it. She'd faced death many times before, but nothing was like certainty of poison, actually feeling your body shut down bit by bit. Helpless, she hated feeling helpless. There was so much more to do, so many things she wished she had said, so many things still left to atone for. Some of her fright must have slipped through her emotional mask, because Batman paused as he stepped away. "Don't worry," he said in a gruff voice. "It's just a paralyzing agent. I don't kill." As her thoughts slipped away, Natasha Romanoff felt a strange mixture of relief and gratitude that her enemy had taken the time to reassure her in her final moments of consciousness. Then the drugs took effect, and she felt nothing at all.

As fast as the Martian Manhunter could recover, Wolverine was tearing him apart. Every bit of flesh that regrew was simply torn away in the next furious swipe of his claws. Worse, behind Logan he could see Reeds trying to revive the Human Torch. He was barely holding on as it was, another opponent would prove too much for him. With his body incapacitated by Wolverine's attack he sent a psychic probe at Reeds, hoping to interrupt him from his work. A second later he was staggered by the stream of thoughts and memories. The mind of Richard Reeds was unlike any he had encountered before. The man was thinking on multiple levels at once. He was perceiving every detail of his surroundings, using his understanding of physics to predict what would happen a few seconds into the future, mentally reviewing every other fight he had been in and every strategy he'd ever considered, and even gathering information that he could utilize in future projects to prepare for a similar situation. He moved from thought to thought too fast for J'onn to keep up, it was like listening to a multilingual crowd and trying to comprehend everything. J'onn was overwhelmed after only a second of mind reading. The next second Mr. Fantastic shielded his thoughts with an unbreakable wall of mental focus. J'onn was shut out entirely. "Sue, he's got psychosomatic powers. Get a force field around everyone now!" The Invisible Woman responded by buffing everyone with a personal shield, protecting them from mental assault as well as physical. J'onn wracked his brains, a difficult task when under constant attack. There had to be some weakness he could find in the memories he had viewed from Sue and Richard that could give him a moment's breathing room. In desperation, he activated his shapeshifting and tried to simulate a form he had observed in both their memories. Wolverine and the Fantastic Four paused in momentary surprise when their opponent morphed into Mystique before their eyes. J'onn had tried to pick an individual morally ambiguous enough to explain his presence there but not so bad that they would attack on sight, and who could naturally shapeshift like him. For a second he thought he had succeeded. Then Wolverine stabbed him again. "Never liked her anyways." As he fell to the ground, utterly spent, he heard Reeds point out that Raven's eyes were yellow, after all.

1:40

Tony Stark watched Spiderman land a solid hit on their opponent, sending her flying into the air. He thought that was it, but Wonder Woman remained where she had been punched, activating her flight and hovering over Peter. Tony had wondered when she would remember that she could do that. Peter snagged her foot with a strand of webbing and tried to pull her back down to his level. Instead, he looked like he was about to be hauled into the air himself. Tony hunched his shoulders, determined to do something about it. An armored plate on his shoulder slid back, opening a compartment filled with twenty tiny heatseakers. At his command the tiny rockets shot forth, spiraling through the air before homing in on Wonder Woman. She saw the projectiles coming and her arms transformed into a spinning, whirling blur as she used them to deflect the explosives. Her enhanced speed allowed her to catch most of them, but enough got through to shake her up. The rockets were like beestings; individually they were painful but insubstantial. In combination, they could bring a person down. Wonder Woman landed awkwardly. Despite his successes, Tony was worried. So far they had knocked Wonder Woman around, slowed her down, and exhausted her, but nothing they did seemed to leave a visible injury. He had yet to use his lasers, however. Those continued in a straight line virtually forever. You could cut down a forest by stretching your shoulders with them on. He raised his wrist and tracked the target. "Spiderman, get down!" he shouted through his suit's megaphone. Wonder Woman was still trying to catch her breath after the rocket volley. Tony sighted down his outstretched arm and activated the chemical lasers. Wonder Woman snapped off a quick handspring to dodge the superluminal weapon. Tony bit back a curse and steadied his aim. He swept the beam towards his enemy, who seemed surprised at the continuous attack. She dropped to the ground and the beam passed over her, slicing off her long hair as it billowed behind her. As soon as the beam was past her she did a backflip to get away. Iron Man anticipated where she would land and fired his lasers. The beam slashed across her stomach, shattering the armor there and baring her midriff. Wonder Woman doubled over, a hand pressed to her abdomen in pain. "Scratch my suit," Tony muttered, "and I'll scratch yours." He was about to follow up the attack when his suit's proximity alarm went off. "Warning," the voice in his helmet said. "There is a projectile approaching…" An adhesive covered timed explosive latched on to his chestplate before the automated voice could finish. "Thanks for the heads up," Tony said dryly before the explosive went off. His suit wasn't damaged, of course. It could function after taking rounds from a tank. He turned in the direction of the attack and saw Batman discard the sticky bomb launcher and break into a run. Iron Man's processors instantly evaluated the situation and fired a repulsor blast into Batman's chest, knocking him off his feet just before he could reach him. Tony looked over his fallen challenger. Bat ears on the hood, bat shaped boomerangs and grapple guns, bat logo on the chest, bat wing cape. "Did you ever think you overdid it on the bat imagery?" Batman didn't answer. He reached into his belt and triggered a device. Suddenly, Iron Man's heads up display flickered out. _Uh oh_ Tony thought. He raised his hand, but his palm blaster refused to fire. Behind his mask, Batman smiled. The armored suit had proven just as susceptible to the energy disrupting EMP generator as all electronics. In his secret identity as Bruce Wayne he used the device to shut down cameras when he didn't feel like dealing with the paparazzi. As Batman, it helped him deal with tech savvy villains. There were few people who were better equipped than him, and almost all of them put all their faith in their superior gadgetry. Without it, the playing field was leveled and they had to rely on their strength and wits to defeat him. Just the way he liked it.

Hulk grabbed one of the toppled trees that lay on the ground and hurled it at Superman. Superman punched the tree as it flew into reach, splitting it down its length. They had been going on like this for some time. Hulk's strength had exceeded his own a long time ago. His opponent was strong, perhaps the strongest there was. However, his strategy did not seem to go beyond smashing things. Superman had fought his share of enemies who were stronger than he was. It should be possible for him to beat him if he fought smart. Time to mix it up a little. When the Hulk came at him again he deflected the punch rather than trying to stop it. He caught the outstretched arm and pulled, using the Hulk's forward momentum to pull him off his feet. As soon as the Hulk's bulk slammed to the ground he dropped on his back and wrapped his legs around the Hulk's enormous upper arm and used the leverage to put his adversary in an armlock, hyperextending the elbow. Hulk roared in pain and struggled to shake Superman off him. Superman grimly held on and increased the pressure. When he could hold on no longer he released the limb and kicked it away with both legs, giving himself room to roll to his feet. The Hulk jumped up with surprising agility and backhanded Superman through a fallen log. Superman shook his head to clear it and got to his feet, picking up a long shard of splintered wood and swinging it at his opponent's ankles, knocking him off his feet. Hulk leapt up and tried to come down with a two handed smash, but Superman shot up and uppercut his chin as he fell. Hulk crashed down and took another swing at Superman. Instead of dodging or blocking Superman responded with a punch of his own. His fist connected with the Hulk's bicep, the Hulk's blow only making the punch land harder. Hulk roared again and swung his other arm even faster. That only made the next strike hit harder. Both of Hulk's arms snapped back, allowing Superman to punch him in the gut. When he doubled over momentarily Superman jumped on his back and wrapped both arms under Hulk's armpits and laced his hands behind the Hulk's head. Hulk bucked and flailed, but Superman had the superior position. Regardless of strength, the Hulk's range of motion made it almost impossible to attack an enemy mounted directly on his back. Superman hung on, ignoring the grabbing fingers that reached around and slapped against him but always fell just short of gripping him, hooking his legs together around the Hulk's waist to keep himself from being hurled off by a shoulder throw. He pitted the strength of both his arms against the bulging muscles in the Hulk's neck to force the beast's chin down to his chest. Even then the Hulk refused to submit, flexing his neck muscles again and again in an attempt to exhaust Superman's arms. Clark felt every bruise, every spot where the beast had pummeled him in the course of their fight as he strained every muscle in his body. He began to wonder if the Hulk would ever give up. Then, finally, the Hulk slumped to the ground in defeat, down but not out. Superman shifted his grip the moment he felt it was safe to do so, encircling the Hulk's neck with his right arm and securing it with his left in a rear naked choke hold. The Hulk twisted his head from side to side and thrashed his arms and legs against the ground, but it was no use. Despite his strength, even he needed the flow of blood and oxygen in his brain to remain conscious. His movements gradually slowed to a crawl, eventually ceasing all together. Superman maintained the hold for a few seconds more, just to be sure, before releasing his enemy and getting to his feet. Breathing hard from the exertion, he watched in shock as the Hulk's unconscious body morphed back into Bruce Banner. Only a man. He must have been truly strong to have contained so much power within him. Superman nodded respectfully to his foe before turning his gaze back to the beach. He hoped his friends had fared well in his absence. After a second, his face paled. "Oh no," he whispered, throwing himself into the air.

2:00

In the corner of her eye, Wonder Woman saw Batman attack the armored man and drive him back. _Thank you Bruce_ she thought fervently. Her legs were shaking under her already, and her arms felt like they weighted a million pounds. Now all she had to do was defeat the young man in front of her. Spiderman shot off another stream of webbing at her ankles, trying to trip her up. She wobbled a little before she regained her balance. As her opponent rushed in she shrew a straight punch at him, but he blocked it with his forearm and counterpunched to her unprotected belly. Wonder Woman felt her breath leave with a whoosh. He was fast, but it was more than that. He seemed to have some sort of precognitive sense that warned him of her attacks before they happened. It made it very hard to land a blow on him. If she could pin him down, her superior strength could allow her to subdue him. As it was, he was bobbing and weaving too fast for her to snatch, keeping her off balance with punches and kicks. Spiderman's next hook knocked her backwards. Her entangled legs refused to move with her and she ended up sprawled out on the beach. She lay on her back, chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath while Spiderman stood over her. "Are we done yet, lady?" he asked. "I…am Diana of Themyscira," she said in between gasps. "Princess of the warrior Amazons…daughter of Hippolyta. I…have fought gods…you…you cannot…hope…to defeat me." "We'll see about that," Spiderman said cockily and aimed a ground punch at her head. Diana crossed her bracers over her face and caught the punch an inch from her nose. Though she couldn't see her opponent's face, Diana sensed a sudden apprehension radiate from him as he realized the position he was in. It was time to show this mortal what an Amazon was capable of. Before Spiderman could wrench his arm free she jerked her legs apart, snapping the webs that bound them, and kicked him in the chest. Spiderman went flying backwards. Diana pushed herself off the ground with a grunt, activating her flight in midair and bringing her knee under Spiderman's chin. Before her feet even touched the ground again she punched twice. She landed nimbly on the balls of her feet and swung again, jumping straight up with a punch to Spiderman's jaw that lifted him into the air. At the height of her leap she twirled her body midcourse to kick him away. She landed catlike on the shore while Spiderman crashed down beside her, tucking into a ball to absorb the impact. She charged him as he sprang to his feet, grabbed his right arm, turned, and threw him by it over her right shoulder. He slammed to the ground and lay groaning at her feet. The entire combo had only taken a couple seconds. "Now we're done," she said fiercely. "Not…quite," Spiderman wheezed, getting up slowly. Almost too slowly. Diana realized the trap a second too late as her adversary suddenly whirled into motion, his injuries exaggerated to lower her guard. She drew back her arm for a punch when the world spun around her. Spiderman had kicked her in the neck. Wonder Woman gagged and clutched her throat, unable to properly draw breath. She stumbled back, trying to open distance between them. There was one more attack she could try, a long range strike she had perfected. She reverently lifted the golden tiara off of her brow and cocked it back in her hand like a discus, preparing to throw it. With a surge of willpower she banished the weariness from her limbs and steadied her aim. Time seemed to slow in her mind's eye as he lined up the shot and whipped her arm forward. The razor sharp headpiece floated through the air, aimed directly at Spiderman's neck, and Diana's heart leapt as she saw the end of their struggle. However, Spiderman twitched with supernatural speed and the projectile passed harmlessly a hairsbreadth from his neck. He took a blind shot over his shoulder and snagged the sacred emblem at the end of a thread of silk. The glistening filament stretched to the breaking point, and for a moment it seemed that even the super ductile gossamer would snap. Then Spiderman yanked it back and the strand rebounded on itself. Diana tried to dodge, throw herself aside or twist her body out of the way or do something, but the weight of her injuries combined with the crash from her previous surge of energy to slow her down and dull her reflexes. Her own headdress struck the center of her forehead with all the force she had thrown it with. Diana's vision blacked out. She realized that she was about to lose consciousness and fought her way back, watching the world swim back into focus. Not trusting her legs to hold her any longer she bent her knees and pushed off, relying on her flight to keep her suspended. She dazedly tried to put some distance between herself and Spiderman, but the younger hero tackled her around the waist before she could get out of reach and sent them both tumbling to the ground. Diana shook her head, trying to clear it. They both climbed blearily too their feet, too exhausted to quip, and lurched towards each other. Diana raised her arms with an effort and gripped Spiderman's shoulders. She was dimly aware that he had done the same to her. She pushed with all the strength she had left while trying to make her eyes focus on the masked face inches from her own. Spiderman dug his feet into the sand and pushed back, refusing to budge. "How?" Diana said, her voice painfully distorted by her bruised vocal cords. How could he do this? Was she really so weak that she couldn't even beat him in a simple contest of strength? Wouldn't this man ever quit? She couldn't think straight. Spiderman abruptly pulled his hands off her shoulders, trailing a fine mesh of webbing. He gripped the web and heaved it downwards, dragging her upper body down with it. As though from a long distance away Wonder Woman watched his knee rising to meet her face. The impact would have knocked her over if she hadn't still been caught in his webbing. Spiderman swung around her, wrapping her up in a tight net of silk. Her limbs were constricted together, totally immobilized. Spiderman landed in front of her and gently shoved her in the chest. She toppled on her back powerlessly like a chopped tree. As the world spun dissolved before her she focused on Thor's hammer, laying within reach of where she had fallen. She remembered how he had smote her with it earlier, and with an explosive burst she tore one arm free and gripped its handle. It didn't move. She tried again, but she couldn't lift the immortal weapon. A foot came down on her elbow and pinned her arm to the ground. She looked up, trying to meet her enemy's eyes before the end. For a moment she saw him. Then she saw his fist flying towards her face with a raw throated yell. Then she saw nothing at all.

Even as his armor shut down and Batman began walloping him, Tony's mind was racing. Unfortunately, most of what it was telling him wasn't good. His suit was shielded against most energy dampening devices, but a sufficiently advanced apparatus could force him to reroute power and reboot. S.H.I.E.L.D. had once developed an electron scrambler for that purpose, in case they ever needed to take him down. Whoever this Batman was, he had to have access to impressive resources. Without power, he could still move and fight, but he had no weapons and his armor weighed him down and slowed his movements. At this point, all it would be good for was protection. Batman threw another punch into his faceplate. Tony was grateful that he didn't seem to have super strength, at least. He threw his own punch, feeling slow and cumbersome without the suit's force-amplifying synchronization with his own movements. Batman easily dodged and continued his attack. Fortunately Tony still had his best weapon: his mind. Enemies often focused on the weaponized suit of armor and forgot about the genius level intellect inside it. His mind processed everything around him now, searching for some weakness in the opponent's technique. Facts flashed through his head. Batman had sustained significant damage to his armor, particularly his chest and abdomen. His attacks indicated the highest level of martial arts training, a high pain tolerance, and keen observational skills. Tony was more interested in what they told him about Batman as a person. He fought with a strange mix of detachment and intensity. There was little or no emotion fueling his strikes. However, his body language betrayed a single minded determination bordering on obsessive need, characterized by complete disregard for his own physical well-being. This hinted of a constructed identity, rather than a natural one, in response to a life changing ordeal. Some trauma had overcome his previous identity, forcing him to make his current one. While a person's identity was meant to change gradually, adapting to normal life experiences, a significant event could require a total transformation of the person to protect the individual both from the effects of the experience and to prevent it from happening again. Given his confidence and lack of emotional turmoil, Tony guessed that the event had happened years ago. This meant that he couldn't be reasoned or intimidated into ending his obsession-driven behavior. Nothing short of a knockout would be able to stop him. Tony noticed another detail of his fighting style. The attacks were brutal, but none of them would have inflicted lethal damage, even if Tony hadn't been wearing the suit. The fact that he had restrained himself, even when rushing to save a friend from an enemy who had already fired on him, showed a compulsive aversion to killing. The only advantage Tony had was his armor's durability, which protected from him from all of Batman's physical blows. It also hid his expression from his adversary. A plan began to formulate in his head that incorporated all the elements he had observed. The key would be allowing Batman to think he had won. Tony could goad Batman to hit him and rely on his armor to protect him until he feigned unconsciousness, hiding his true condition behind his faceplate. Against any other opponent he would never have willingly offered free shots. It would be far too risky. However, he believed that Batman would not go in for the kill even if Stark gave him the opportunity. Once he was down Batman would probably try to confirm that he was out of the fight. He might lower his guard then, giving Tony one shot at him. He would have to aim for a weak point to make it count. And if Batman chose to abandon him there, it would give him the breather he needed to restart his suit. When Batman paused, Tony put his plan into action. "Who did you lose?" he asked his opponent. Batman answered with an uppercut that snapped Iron Man's chin back. Tony grunted audibly and asked in a weaker voice "How did they die?" "It doesn't matter," Batman replied, delivering a roundhouse kick to his head. Iron Man staggered back deliberately and dropped to one knee. "Did…" he moaned "did you fail them?" Batman roared and headbutted him so hard Tony heard something crack. "This doesn't matter," Tony snapped. "Win or lose, they'll still be dead." Batman chillingly stepped forward and delivered a brutal beatdown, pummeling him incessantly for several seconds with a long combo attack until Iron Man dropped senseless to the ground. He finished with three ground strikes once Iron Man was down. He rose, wary for an attack, but Iron Man didn't moving. He tried to pry Tony's mask off, but the metal wouldn't budge. Batman crouched next to him and pulled out his cryptographic sequencer to hack the suit and open it. As soon as he took his eyes off of Iron Man and began twisting the dials to crack armor's encryption code Tony manually triggered the suit's wrist knife and thrust his palm into Batman's gut. Batman gasped in pain and surprise and his whole body tensed. Tony pulled his hand away and stood up as Batman toppled onto his side. "No one turns me off," Tony said softly and punched Batman in the forehead, knocking him unconscious. "Alright, let's get recharged and see about getting back into this fight."

The Martian Manhunter was falling to pieces. Literally. The attacks had triggered his body's last resort reflex, drawing on all its reserves to rapidly shapeshift through all the forms he knew. It was an unconscious process, totally out of J'onn's control. His body was simply generating random changes in the hopes that one would provide an reprive. He tried to move, but the rapidly fluctuating limbs made it impossible. He wasn't even in a cohesive form anymore. Bits of him were shapeshifting entirely on their own, creating bizarre hybrids and amalgamations. In the distance he heard the female ask Johnny how he was feeling. Then he heard a youthful voice cry "FLAME ON!" Instantly his blurry vision was dazzled with dancing flames. He recoiled in instinctive terror as his pyrophobia kicked in. His mind collapsed under the weight of the images of his homeworld burning, brought on by the sight of the flames. Unable to control his unstable, damaged form, he melted into a liquid state. Even that didn't help as the Human Torch increased his temperature, approaching nova heat. The outside of his essence began to burn away. What was left of the Martian Manhunter seeped into the sand, intuitively burrowing away from the terrible heat with an animalistic fear. There, deep below the surface, it coiled into a ball and waited, trembling. It would not go back to the surface, not where the fire was. It would stay down here, in the dark, damp depths of the earth, where no fire could ever exist. Some tiny part of him spoke, saying there was something more important than the fire above, some struggle in which he was needed, but the memories were scrambled and feeble. Right now, all he wanted was to rest a while…

"How's he doing?" Flash asked uneasily. "Not good," Aquaman said shortly. He stood at the bottom of a small depression in the sand where Hal Jordan lay. After helping the Flash get to his feet they had both gone to check on their fallen teammate. So far he had been unresponsive. "What did that brute do to him?" Aquaman looked over the Green Lantern with a practiced eye. "Concussion. Internal bleeding. Multiple fractures. He's not going to be fighting again anytime soon." "Why did he get it so bad?" Flash asked. "I fought the big green guy too, and I just got rattled up a bit." "From a glancing blow. And even with that, it took you half a minute to clear the sand from your ears. Hal took a direct hit." "Ouch," Flash muttered. "Did you see what happened to our big green friend? Aquaman nodded. "Superman carried him off before he could finish you. I haven't seen either of them since." "Let's hope Supes is up to the challenge. We owe it to Hal to mess that guy up." "We owe him a lot more than that," Aquaman pointed out. "Without him, our enemies would have overwhelmed us with their numbers from the beginning. He's already done his part. He's given us a chance, and we owe it to him and to ourselves to use it and finish this fight." "Yeah. Us and…" Flash and Aquaman looked out over the shoreline. Seven of their opponents were still standing. In contrast, there was a conspicuous lack of Justice League members. Aquaman and Flash looked at each other with dismay. They were alone.

2:20

It began with a low supersonic rumble, more felt than heard. The sound grew quickly until the sonic booms pounded the ears of all present and shook the sand at their feet. Everyone, friend and foe alike, knew what it meant: Superman had returned. He appeared over the horizon, streaking through the sky like a jet, trailing sonic booms in his wake. All stood still in hope or alarm until Wolverine shrugged. "We already beat one big flashy alien today. What's one more?" He took a running start and leapt as high up as he could. At the peak of his jump he tucked in his legs and dropped directly onto Mister Fantastic. He landed on both feet and Richard's flexible body deformed and rebounded, shooting Logan straight up like a trampoline to intercept Superman. Clark saw him coming, caught his wrist behind the claws, and hurled him aside like a you would skip a stone across a pond. Superman slammed down amid the assembled Fantastic Four, blasting the beach apart on landing. He had seen Diana, Bruce, and J'onn all go down within seconds of each other and returned with a rage that would have mildly impressed the Hulk. These people had assaulted his teammates, his friends, his family. That was unacceptable. He grabbed Reed's arm and swung him around his head like a rope, stretching out his elastic body with the centrifugal force. Sue ducked as her husband's limp body swung over her head, unable to believe what she was seeing. After another two passes Superman discarded Reed's unconscious body. To her left, Sue heard Johnny "Flame on!" He hurled a fireball at Superman, who was totally unaffected. Superman rocketed towards the Human Torch, who shot up into the sky trailing fire. He was rapidly closing the gap between them. At the last second Johnny veered left and began flying in ever tightening circles at a dizzying speed, burning hotter every second. Sue had to turn her face away from the heat and light. Johnny was going nova again. Both combatants had already disappeared in an expanding sphere of pure flames. Superman was visible only as a man shaped shadow amid the flames. It seemed impossible that anyone could survive in that inferno. Then twin beams of red light shone out from the shadow and the temperature skyrocketed. Superman had fired his heat vision into the circling Human Torch. Sue could barely hear Johnny taunting Superman over the roar of the flames, asking him if the heat vision was supposed to feel like a cool breeze. Superman fired his eye beams continuously and the air crackled with the built up energy. Both participants disappeared into a blinding glare that far outshone the sun. Sue realized that she had closed her eyes, and it hardly made a difference. Steam was rippling off of the nearby ocean. It grew difficult to breathe as the fire consumed all the oxygen in the air. She wondered which would last longer, Johnny's heat resistance or Superman's invulnerability. Finally the surrounding gas heated to the point of ionization and turned into plasma. The plasma expanded out in an elliptical bubble in a tiny fraction of a second, destroying all in its path. Superman stood unharmed when it cleared. The Human Torch was spiraling back to the ground, still burning weakly. Superman dove to catch him before he crashed and dunked him in the ocean. A cloud of steam instantly hissed to life around them. Superman held him underwater just long enough for his flames to be extinguished before carrying him out of the haze and laying him gently on the beach. Sue glared at him with fury, the man who had taken down her husband and brother. Superman met her gaze, his eyes blazing with power.

"Well, this changes things," Barry said happily as Supermad made his explosive return to the fight. "Indeed," Aquaman replied. "I suspect those four will be kept busy for some time. Our odds have improved. What say we split the remainder between us?" "Sure thing," the Flash said, disappearing in a burst of speed. He thought he would be able to sneak up on Spiderman before he even knew what hit him, but Spiderman sensed him coming and turned to face him. He shot off a web, which Flash easily dodged. _He's too fast_ Spiderman thought as the Flash began pummeling him at superspeed. He had fought speedsters like Quicksilver before, but never one like this. There were all sorts of tricks he knew, mostly involving tripping them up as they ran by, using their speed against them by putting something in their way when they're going too fast to stop. Every time he tried to use one, the Flash just dodged it and he received a punch for his trouble. If he had to rely on his own speed alone, he never would have caught up. With his spider sense allowing him to react before the punches were even thrown as well as his durability to keep him standing when he missed a dodge, he thought he had a chance. He just had to slow the Flash down. With that in mind he shot off numerous webs around him, creating an obstacle course for the Flash to run through. Barry ran over, under, and around each of them, barely cutting his speed. Spiderman shot webs as fast as he could, adding individual strands between the webs to act as tripwires. The Flash sped through the domed mass of tangled silk. Spiderman's spider sense went off and he moved to block the inevitable attack. Flash was much faster, but Spiderman had already begun moving long before him. Rather than punching Spiderman out, the Flash found himself knocked off balance and headed straight for a web. Unable to change direction he smashed straight into it. The web stretched with him, not injuring him on impact but entangling him in its sticky threads. He kicked his legs uselessly above the ground. Spiderman was cautiously approaching when a violent explosion went off in the distance and left both their ears ringing. When it faded Spiderman continued his relentless march towards his foe. Flash forced his muscles to vibrate as fast as he could, hoping to weaken the webbing around him. The durable silk clung to every part of his body and refused to let him go. Flash pushed himself further; superspeed wouldn't do him any good if he couldn't get out of the way before his opponent hit him. The web began to heat up from the vibrations. Suddenly, Flash was vibrating through the web before Spiderman's astonished eyes. Before Spiderman could react Barry shot towards him, literally going as fast as he could. At such a speed a new attack became available to him. He called it the Infinite Mass Punch. Basically, relativity dictated that the closer a body, in this case his body, came to actual lightspeed the closer its mass increased towards infinity. It was this attack that Barry now prepared to use on Spiderman. Spiderman literally couldn't see him coming, he was running as fast as the light waves that carried his image to Peter's eyes. When the punch landed, Spiderman was borne aloft on a pillar of burning light, becoming a momentary twinkle in the sky. Seconds later he came back down at terminal velocity. Flash spun his arms like pinwheels, creating an updraft that slowed his fall slightly. Only slightly. Barry really hadn't liked feeling like a fly caught in a web waiting to be eaten by a spider.

2:40

Superman launched himself across the ground with his arms outstretched in front of him. It had sorta become his iconic pose over the years, but it was actually quite practical. Across the beach, Sue decided enough was enough. A second later Superman found himself crumpled against a wall of solid psionic energy. Sue folded the wall around him, encasing him in an invisible sphere of energy. Superman stood up and banged his head against the shell surrounding him. He braced both hands against the sides and pushed out. Sue grimly increased the force field's power, focusing her whole being on keeping Superman contained. It was a difficult task with her splitting headache. With a final effort Superman shattered the psionic prison and Sue's mind buckled under the psychic backlash. Superman turned his attention to the last of them. Ben was jogging towards him, undaunted. Clark shot towards him, hit him in the stomach, and kept going. The Thing was pushed back, feet leaving furrows in the sand, as Superman shoved him with his outstretched arm. Ben lifted both hands over his head and two fisted Superman in the back, dropping him on his face. He grabbed the top of Superman's head and lifted him up by it to hit him in the gut, but Superman caught the punch in his left hand and punched Ben across the face with his right. The Thing released him suddenly and he fell unsupported to the ground. He pushed himself forward and punched the Thing twice, once on each side of his face, then hit him in the center of his chest and sent him flying back. Unable to control his forward momentum Superman pitched forward and landed on his hands. He rolled back to his feet and flew at the recovering Thing, intending to ram him. Less than a foot away he ran into a psionic barrier that surrounded Ben, which blocked his follow up strike as well. The Thing was free to counterattack, bringing both fists together on each side of Superman's head with enough force to make his temples throb. Superman grunted and snapped off a cross counter, throwing his own hook along the Thing's incoming arm. Ben's hook landed with enough force to twist his head to the side. His own punch did no damage to Ben, but he felt it shatter the invisible shield protecting him. The Thing swung an overhead chop at his head, which he blocked with both hands. When he raised his hands Ben struck inside his guard and kicked him in the face. The Thing was no Hulk, but he was still strong and his form was far more diverse. Another psionic blast struck him in the back. Rather than fight it, Superman rode with it and allowed it to carry him into Ben feet first. He landed on top of the Thing and wound up to punch his face when his opponent turned invisible under him. Huh? A second later another psionic blast knocked him over. He stood and looked around for his opponents, but neither of them were visible. Then something hard hit him in the back of the head and he whirled around, eyes darting across the beach. There was no one there. Even with his ability to see most of the electromagnetic spectrum, he couldn't pierce Sue's concealment. Another blow, this one to the back of the knee, unbalancing him. As he stumbled a smaller pair of arms locked around his neck and he felt a pair of thumbs pressing against the pressure points above the arteries in his neck. He batted them aside, feeling the resistance of another protective force field as he did so. The first invisible attacker returned, grabbed his head and punched his face three times before diving aside as another telekinetic ram hit him with the force of a freight train. He couldn't keep this up. With a great effort, he stopped fighting and forced himself to ignore the increasingly painful attacks buffeting him from all directions. He closed his eyes and focused his whole being on listening. He filtered out all the ambient sounds like the crashing waves and the grunts of the other combatants. There, the scrape of sand shifting underfoot. He turned his head towards the noise blindly. A sharp inhalation of breath. He opened his eyes, releasing a pent up wave of heat vision in a wide arc towards the source of the noise. The beam burned away the mental fields protecting them and bending the light to conceal them using a surgical precision without so much as scorching their clothes.

"What have we got?" Tony Stark asked urgently. "We are running on emergency backup power," his suit replied. "Primary power is still offline." Across the battlefield the Flash looked directly at him. "Weapons?" "Repulsors offline. Missiles offline." In the time it took the onboard computer to report, the Flash had closed the distance between them. "Flares!" Tony yelled as the Flash got close enough to see the whites of his eyes, hoping the low powered countermeasure would be available. The Flash ran headlong into a cloud of fireworks and slowed to a stop, reflexively shielding his eyes from the blinding flares. Tony ignored his suit's warnings and triggered his palm repulsor, aimed not at the Flash but away from him. The exhaust from the propulsion device propelled his hand several times faster than his usual top speed, momentarily allowing him to strike the distracted Flash and backhand him hard. "Right repulsor, fire!" Tony ordered. His other hand also shot towards the Flash, but Barry wasn't about to be fooled again. He met the incoming attack with a punch of his own that shattered the underpowered gauntlet. Tony winced. "Left repulsor!" His left hand shot towards Flash again, and again Flash blocked the attack and broke the weapon. "Right leg!" His foot snapped up for a kick on its own, boosted by the jets in his feet, but that attack proved no more effective than the previous ones had been. A second later the Flash regained his composure and hit him a hundred times. The armored suit collapsed into pieces at his feet. The Flash smiled and sped away. In his place stepped Aquaman. "Uh oh," Tony muttered, looking down regretfully at his shattered suit before Aquaman punched him in the face, knocking him out cold. "I wouldn't want to be him right now," the Flash said, eyeing their fallen foe. "We work well together," Aquaman agreed. "What became of your initial opponent?" "I punched him into orbit. He came down again…eventually. Yours?" "He was a ferocious opponent. I felt like I was battling a shark rather than a man. His claws would have been lethal, had they touched me, but once I learned to be wary of their bite my arm struck him through the gut and pinned him to the ground. I was sorry to have wounded him so grievously, but such is war." "Yeah, lets help Supes out so we can wrap this thing up and go home. You can take the big ugly rock monster; I think I've had my quota of brute bashing today, thank you. I'll take the beautiful…" His words were cut off by a feral snarl. Wolverine had gotten back to his feet and was charging them, swiping the air furiously. "I guess you didn't wound him enough," the Flash said in surprise. "Get his attention, I'll take care of him." He sped around behind the Wolverine and closed in. He wouldn't even have time to turn around. Barry accelerated towards Logan's back, preparing a heavy punch. Logan didn't even turn around. He just reached his fist backwards over his shoulder and Barry ran straight into his outstretched claws. The adamantium weapons sank deep into Barry's chest. Barry coughed in surprise and blood sprayed from his lips. Logan turned and sneered at him. "Heard you commin' a mile away, sonny." He yanked his claw free and Barry fell backwards to the ground, bleeding profusely. He dimly heard Aquaman shouting his name from what sounded like miles away.

3:00

Aquaman was beginning to wonder how long this fight would last. It had probably only lasted a couple minutes in reality, but he already felt like it had been hours. He had been flattened by Hulk's shockwaves, dueled a demigod, and gone all out against a man who just wouldn't die. Now he had just witnessed the same man mortally wound the Flash right before his eyes. It was time for this fight to be decided, one way or another. Throwing caution to the winds, he leapt straight towards his opponent. He covered the distance between them in a single bound, landing within reach of his claws and driving him away from where Barry lay with a complex series of blows. Sparks flew as their weapons collided. Aquaman realized he had been wrong about his opponent. Wolverine did possess an animalistic ferocity, but he was no unthinking beast. He had the cunning and precision of a predator. After his initial outburst, his fury seemed to vanish, replaced by implacable determination. He did not have the strength of Aquaman, but his seemingly wild attacks were delivered with technical skill equal to his opponent's. Every blow would have been a kill strike if Aquaman had not deflected it. Aquaman felt a touch of concern as his original surge of reckless energy began to subside and he had accomplished only a shallow cut to Wolverine's chest, which had instantly healed. Wolverine took a step forward, then another. Even his desire to protect his teammate could not keep Aquaman from being pushed back. Wolverine attacked with both swipes and stabs. His attacks were unpredictable and his two claws gave him a multitude of ways to wound his foe. Many times his strikes were blocked mere inches from his adversary's taut skin. When he had been pushed back so far he was up to his knees in the sea, Aquaman stood his ground and fended off Logan's attacks. From here it would be easy for him to jump into his element and swim to safety. But escape would mean abandoning his allies, and he would die before he suffered that dishonor. He added strength to his blows, determined to use his advantage. His parries no longer blocked his attacks so much as knocked them aside. Each blow upset his stance a bit more, until Aquaman was able to pierce his defenses with a lightning quick blow that tore his face in half. That distracted him for about all of three seconds. Then he jumped back into the fight to deliver a swipe to each side of Aquaman's face, which left three shallow gashes. Aquaman stepped up his attack further and managed to cuff Wolverine roughly over the head. Rather than allow him to recover he stabbed incessantly into Wolverine's broken defenses. Wolverine dropped to one knee, his tendons being severed faster than they could regenerate. On his sixth thrust Aquaman felt the tip of his weapon become wedged between Logan's indestructible ribs. Logan smiled a bloody grin and ran along the length of the weapon until he was close enough to graze Aquaman's ribs with his claws, shredding the scale armor. Aquaman grunted in surprise and heaved the weapon lodged in his opponent's body, sending Wolverine sliding off his blade and skidding across the ground. Logan sprang to his feet and charged. Aquaman had to be careful throwing his whole body into attacks to outmuscle Logan. He might bash open holes in the Wolverine's defenses, but in doing so he opened gaps in his own. It took longer to recover from such blows and a quick opponent like Wolverine might get a lucky shot in. _But I don't have to defeat him_ Aquaman thought. _I only have to keep him here for a moment longer. Then I'll have a little surprise for him._

_He's too strong_ thought the Invisible Woman as she looked at the being that had effortlessly flattened half her team and was now threatening to do the same to her and Ben. If anything, he was even more powerful than the green skinned alien she had fought earlier. Despite the potential dangers, she had to try and lure him away from her team or he could wipe them all out. With a mere thought she generated a flattened psionic field beneath her feet and commanded it to carry her into the air. Sue wondered just how stupid her plan would turn out. Johnny had already tried out flying Superman and had been given a bath for his trouble. Every instinct screamed at her to turn invisible, but that wasn't the point. For the distraction to work she needed her enemy to notice her. Still, she hesitated for a moment. In that instant Ben took a punch to the face that knocked him flat on his back, unmoving. Enough uncertainty, this had to work. Slowly at first, but with ever growing speed, she rocketed at Superman. He saw her coming and aimed a blow at the telekinetic platform at her feet. Sue crouched and pushed off as high as she could, summersaulting over Superman's head and allowing the board to shatter against him below. Even as she tumbled through the air she was desperately reconstructing the mental construct beneath her. It reconstituted just before she hit the ground and carried her past Superman and into the sky at breakneck speed. "Ok, no problem!" she gasped. She had seen the Surfer do these kinds of stunts all the time. How hard could it be? Behind her Superman took flight. He was going to catch her. Knowing that he would just shatter her strongest constructs and probably knock her out with the mental recoil, she hurled lots of weak constructs at him, hoping to slow him down. He simply flew over, around, or through each one, kept at bay but not perturbed. She had to find a way to shake him. She angled the board down into a dive and the wind's roar drowned out everything else. This was terrifying; it was basically freefall, with nothing between herself and the ground and only the light resistance of the board at her feet. Sue kept her cool and waited until the last moment, counting off the seconds in her head and the ground rushed up to meet her. When she could wait no longer she angled her nose up and pulled out of the dive. The change in direction was so severe she was driven to her knees against the invisible platform and the blood rushed from her head. Behind her Superman made the bend with ease. She had been hoping that he would crash trying to follow her. That was the problem with trying to beat fliers at their own game. She pulled up more until she was a safe distance above the ground, or at least high enough that she wouldn't become intimately acquainted with a tree if she happened to glance behind her. She looked around, but there was no sign of Superman. Where had he gone? A second later he shot up from underneath her, shattering the platform and punching her under the chin. The Invisible Woman tumbled helplessly through the air away from the blow. Another strike sent her flying in the opposite direction. He was moving so fast he could punch her one way and then get in front of her and send her flying another way before she actually landed. The blows came from all directions, separated by fractions of a second. For Sue, the world had transformed into flashes of color and pain. Finally she felt herself coming to a stop. She landed against the ground and felt sand against her body through the tattered uniform. Superman had send her back to the beach. He stood over her as she succumbed to the attack and blacked out. He had, of course, significantly softened his punches, layering dozens of weakened blows on each other to keep her off balance and simulate the effects of a stronger knockout blow, which might have been lethal. Before he could do anything else, a pair of rock solid arms encircled him in a bear hug from behind, pinning his arms to his side. "Get away from her!" a rough voice shouted in his ear. Superman struggled to break the hold, but the day's efforts were finally starting to take a toll on him. "Let go of me! You'll never hold me! I'm faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! And able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!" "Mister, maybe I'm too dumb to collapse," said the Thing, unintimidated. "Too ugly to die! I'll let you figger out the reasons! I've heard it all before, and I'm not letting you go." Try as he might, Superman could not break the hold on him. He triggered his flight, carrying them both far above the battlefield. "Last chance, buddy. Let me go." The Thing's silence was answer enough. Superman curtly cut off his flight and sent them both plummeting towards the shoreline. They crashed into the spot where the waves hit the shore and left a mushrooming explosion on impact. When it cleared a hand lifted itself weakly from the crater, followed by an arm, and then Superman dragged himself clear of the dip in the beach. Behind him, looking for all the world like an outcropping of rock that the waves broke against, was the unconscious body of the Thing. It seemed that water beat rock. Ben was beaten at last.

3:20

"Getting tired, fishy?" Wolverine asked as he locked blades with Aquaman. "A bit," Aquaman admitted as he pushed back with his own weapon. "It's been a long day. Fortunately, I have a friend on the way." Behind him the water churned. A long tentacle slithered out of the ocean and wrapped itself around Wolverine's leg. His eyes widened in surprise and he severed it with a swipe of his claws. Behind Aquaman a hollow roar of pain sounded. "It's called a colossal squid. It's the largest of its kind known to surface dwellers. The tentacles are lined with barbed hooks to hold its prey." Aquaman abruptly dove aside and disappeared under the waves as a cluster of tentacles erupted from the water and reached for Wolverine. He backpedaled furiously, slashing the air as fast as he could and sending severed squid appendages raining down around him. The squid roared in pain and flailed its remaining limbs. Aquaman reappeared, shooting out of the water at a hundred feet per second. He had dived deep and come tearing up at awesome velocity to slam his opponent. His fist impacted the center of Wolverine's forehead, rattling his brain within his adamantium skull. With a flick of his wrist, he commanded the squid he had summoned to hold him in case he recovered.

Superman was in pain. Between Thor's original attack, going a few rounds with the Incredible Hulk, enduring a nearly thermonuclear explosion from the Human Torch, and spending his last reserves to finish the rest of the Fantastic Four, he was beat. However, he was also satisfied. He'd stopped more than his share of the enemy. His moment of contentment was shattered when something hard smacked against his head. He whirled around to face his new challenger. Captain America, his outfit torn and blackened by the blast, was striding towards him fearlessly. Superman stumbled towards him, too weak to fly. "You can barely stand," Steve warned. "You don't look so great yourself," Superman replied, finding a hidden reserve of strength within him. He shot forward and punched the center of Cap's shield. He expected Steve to go flying backwards at the very least. The shield didn't move. He tried another couple punches to no effect. Then Steve took the offensive, battering him with the shield. This was ridiculous. He was invulnerable. The blows shouldn't be capable of hurting him. But his fatigue and his inability to touch Captain America through the shield drained him. Finally he focused a blast of heat vision on his foe, only to have Steve reflect it back into his own eyes. Dazzled, feeling like his head had been split open, struck down by his own attack, Superman dropped to his knees. Steve Rodgers got a two handed grip on his shield, drew back, and swung as hard as he could, directly into Superman's skull. The Man of Steel crumpled into a heap, utterly spent.

Across the field of battle, Captain America and Aquaman circled one another, surrounded by the bodies of their allies. The survivors said nothing, sizing each other up, until Aquaman spoke. "Human, you have fought gallantly. There is no shame in leaving a fight you cannot win. Against me, you really have no chance. I am the King of Atlantis. I guard the surface from terrors in the deep that you could not possibly imagine. I have fought gods and eldritch abominations, founded the Justice League, commanded the armies of the sea. I can survive beneath the weight of an entire ocean. You cannot even harm me." Captain America continued circling warily. "I can't deny anything you say. I can tell you that I have heard it all before. I have heard tyrants and monsters stand above everyone else and proclaim their own immunity, and I have watched them fall like anyone else. You may be stronger, faster, more powerful, but it doesn't matter. We beat Superman, and if we beat him, we can beat you. Because I'm a hero. It's what I do." Even as he said it, he knew that Aquaman most likely had the power to make good on his threats. But the Atlantian wasn't attacking. Instead, he appeared satisfied. "We are not so different, you and I. Neither of us fear defeat or death; we act only according to our own code. Therefore, I propose a truce between us. Let us each gather our wounded and depart on amiable terms. Is this acceptable?" Captain America stepped closer and extended his hand. Aquaman shook it, both parties wary of treachery. But there was none. A moment later, they parted, each to his own.

END SIMULATION

Well, there you have it. I hope you all enjoyed that, or at least that it didn't leave you filled with enough nerdrage to turn into the Hulk. Like I said, if I get some appreciative comments I will consider a pair of followup fics when I have the time. On a side note, I always wanted the final scene to be all the heroes sitting in a lounge together talking about the simulation on a television. Maybe with Wonder Woman and Captain America sparing in the corner, Black Widow flirting with Batman, Superman arm wrestling Thor, Flash and Hawkeye playing darts, and everybody else having a card game or something. Anyways, thanks for reading.


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